New Freedom

11 August 2017

At the first reading, it is easy to see today’s gospel as demanding and frightening. Jesus is uncompromising in his language; “renounce yourself, take up your cross”! Do we have the courage to follow Jesus and give our lives to Him as completely? We even say to ourselves – “This is too extreme, what He is asking is crazy! Surely He means something kinder and gentler!”

Last month Fr Tony spoke about the 10 commandments as a parachute. Today’s gospel has made me think of parachutes as well!

I have never been parachuting, but I imagine that the first time you jump out of an airplane you may think “this is too extreme, surely! What I am doing is crazy!” But once you jump you experience a freedom and exhilaration that is beyond what you can know on the ground!

Perhaps Jesus in this reading is inviting us to a new freedom. By following Christ with all of our being and giving, as much as humanly possible, our complete “yes” to Him, we are jumping out of the plane – it is scary! But we discover a new way to live on the other side of our Yes.